Chromosomal testing, also known as genetic testing, is a type of medical test that identifies changes in chromosomes, genes or proteins. Gene tests look for abnormalities in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) taken from a person's blood, body fluids or tissues. The tests can look for large mistakes such as a gene that has a section missing or added. Other tests look for small changes within the DNA. Other mistakes that can be found include genes that are too active, genes that are turned off, or those that are lost entirely. In order to differentiate the different nucleobases within DNA, namely adenine (A), thymine (T), guanine (G) and cytosine (C) (hereinafter, simply expressed by A, T, G and C) in the chromosomes, only a part of these four nucleotides is stained in the chromosomal testing.
Within the prior art, for example Tang et al. in WO/2011/106495 entitled “Cytogenic Analysis of Metaphase Chromosomes”, the process of staining is time consuming process as result of a process step referred to as “aging.” Prior to staining a chromosome, a portion of the nucleotides are dissolved in an enzyme in order that only those nucleotides which have not dissolved may be stained. More specifically, the process step of aging is performed in such a manner that only a part of nucleotides become sparingly soluble in the enzyme, and then the resultant material is immersed into the enzyme to enable “differential staining” for staining only A and T which become sparingly soluble in the enzyme. However, such aging has been the operation typically requiring a substantial period of time, typically days.
Accordingly, it would be beneficial to provide a staining pretreatment method according to which aging can be achieved in a short period of time thereby reducing the overall processing time for performing chromosome analysis.
Other aspects and features of the present invention will become apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art upon review of the following description of specific embodiments of the invention in conjunction with the accompanying figures.